Deutsche Börse is opening its doors to fintech startups, offering firms the chance to pitch ideas with the potential of investment from the German exchange group.

Deutsche Börse, Frankfurt

Deutsche Börse will next week officially launch an online platform, titled Open Innovation, through which early stage companies will able to present their ideas. Fintech firms with relevant propositions will be supported by Deutsche Börse in areas ranging from technology development, to regulatory affairs, and will be connected to the bourse’s network of member firms and vendors.

The move is the latest example of a large financial company seeking to import innovation from the growing ranks of European fintech startups. On Monday Financial News will publish its first Fintech 40 highlighting the key people in fintech for institutional finance.

Deutsche Börse’s Open Innovation is a new, more open approach. Others institutions, such as HSBC and CME Group have launched corporate venture funds to invest in young technology companies. Deutsche Borse is casting a wider net, through an open-ended call for innovative ideas via an online platform.

It will allow the company to help nurture early stage fintech firms, while giving it an opportunity to find innovative companies to potentially partner with or invest in, according to Brendan Bradley, member of Eurex’s executive board, the Deutsche Börse-owned derivatives exchange.

Bradley, who also serves as Eurex's chief innovation officer, said: “The changing environment means we can’t be on top of all the developments that are happening within the fintech space.”

He added: “As an exchange and a clearing house we will always build the core systems because we are a systemically important entity and have to be responsible for that. But there are other pieces of technology around the trade cycle that other players are building, where we may be able to partner.”

The new initiative will open the group’s internal innovation programme, called YouNovate, to external participants for the first time. YouNovate is a platform where employees can pitch ideas to improve the company’s business areas, to from new products to cost efficiency.

YouNovate has generated a number of success stories since its launch, according to Bradley, including Deutsche Börse Cloud Exchange, a marketplace that aims to allow trading of cloud computing capacity.

Open Innovation is also a reflection of Deutsche Börse‘s growing portfolio of strategic investments in early stage companies, said Bradley.

In February, Deutsche Börse acquired a minority stake in Bondcube, a new fixed income trading system seeking to help boost liquidity in the global bond markets. The Frankfurt-based group has also invested Global Markets Exchange Group, a London based exchange start-up that is looking to shake-up derivatives trading, and RFQ-hub, a trading platform vendor.

Bradley also added Deutsche Börse has also been looking at disruptive fintech models, such as peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, and thinking of ways it could be applied to its domains.

He said: “These are areas we are very interested in, which we would call market structure,"

As part of its efforts to lend its support and expertise in the space, the exchange group has also been engaging with London’s fintech accelerators, such as Canary Wharf Group-owned Level39 and St. Katharine Docks-based StartupBootCamp FinTech, Bradley said.